Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]

THE GARDEN ROSE AND THE WILD ROSE.

AS DEE, whose current free from stain,
Glides fair o'er MERIONETH's plain,
By mountains forced his way to steer
Along the lake of PIMBLE MERE,

Darts swiftly through the stagnant mass,
His waters trembling as they pass,
And leads his lucid waves below,

Unmixed, unsullied as they flow-
So clear through life's tumultuous tide,
So free could THOUGHT and FANCY glide;"
Could HOPE as sprightly hold her course,
As first she left her native source,
Unsought in her romantic cell

The keeper of her dreams might dwell.

But ah! they will not, will not last-
When life's first fairy stage is past,
The glowing hand of HOPE is cold;
And FANCY lives not to be old.
Darker, and darker all before;

We turn the former prospect o'er;
And find in MEMORY's faithful eye
Our little stock of pleasures lie.

Come, then; thy kind recesses ope!
Fair keeper of the dreams of HOPE!
Come with thy visionary train;

And bring my morning scenes again!

TO ENON'S wild and silent shade,
Where oft my lonely youth was laid;
What time the woodland GENIUS came,
And touched me with his holy flame.-

Or, where the hermit, BELA, leads
Her waves through solitary meads;
And only feeds the desart-flower,

Where once she soothed my slumbering hour:
Or roused by STAIN MORE'S Wintry sky,
She wearies echo with her cry;

And oft, what storms her bosom tear,

Her deeply-wounded banks declare.

Where EDEN's fairer waters flow,

By MILTON's bower, or OsTy's brow,
Or BROCKLEY's alder-shaded cave,

Or, winding round the Druid's grave,
Silently glide, with pious fear
To sound his holy slumbers near.-

To these fair scenes of FANCY's reign,
O MEMORY! bear me once again:
For, when life's varied scenes are past,
'Tis simple Nature charms at last.

"Twas thus of old a poet prayed;

Th' indulgent power his prayer approved, And, ere the gathered Rose could fade,

Restored him to the scenes he loved.

« PreviousContinue »